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kaymac_gw

Tiny white pests all over flowers

Kaymac
9 years ago

I have an insect I can't identify infesting two separate flower baskets, one the Wave petunias and the other the small petunia-like calibrachoa (Million Bells). They are all over the leaves, stems and flowers. I'm enclosing the best photo I can get. They are very tiny! They don't move at all that I can observe, even when leaves are disturbed (as white flies do). I have actually picked some off the plant and they don't even move on my hand! But when I spray them away with the hose - or insecticidal soap - they return in a short time.

The photo is of the biggest one I saw. With only my eyes, I can just make out that it is indeed a bug, but I can't make out this much detail that the camera caught. The others are so tiny, they look like bits of cotton thread. The flower is the small one, calibrachoa.

They seem to have been on the Wave petunia for the longest time. It was a very large hanging planter and just covered with blooms on branches 2+ feet long. When I finally realized something was wrong and discovered these insects, the plant had become straggly and a lot of leaves were turning brown and dry.

Can anyone ID it? Or offer an organic remedy I haven't tried?

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